Given the band members’ collective pedigree in a host of estimable indie bands over the last decade, it should come as no surprise that Ethers’ self-titled debut album sounds so accomplished.

The band’s resume includes hundreds of shows and recordings in bands such as Heavy Times, Outer Minds, Radar Eyes and the Runnies. All of which explains why the band’s label somewhat sarcastically promotes the Ethers as a “supergroup,” a tag straight out of the corporate-rock dictionary.

“Yes, we’re the Traveling Wilburys of the age 30-plus local scene,” singer-guitarist Bo Hansen says.

Mostly, the singer says, he wanted to play in a band with his friends: bassist Russ Calderwood, drummer Matthew Rolin and Mary McKane, who plays overdriven Farfisa organ that wouldn’t sound out of place on a “Nuggets”-era garage-rock compilation

“I love organ-driven music — the Go-Betweens, Question Mark and the Mysterians, the Modern Lovers,” Hansen says.

“We were all already friends,” McKane adds in a separate interview, “and our bands were all ending around the same time a couple years ago. I liked (Hansen and Calderwood’s band) Heavy Times a lot, and I thought the lyrics were a cut above other stuff.”

Hansen’s dark lyrics on “Ethers” (Trouble in Mind) “are half heartfelt introspection and half the guy who is screaming to himself on the street or on the bus,” he says. They also are in part informed by a personal tragedy, the recent suicide of his older brother. Some of the songs “I can’t play because I feel like the lyrics are too much,” he says.

But the melancholy tone never becomes oppressive, thanks in part to the energy behind the music, with McKane’s roaring keys out front of a propulsive rhythm section. Veteran recording engineer Dave Vettraino helped sharpen the clear, cutting mix.

“I don’t think everybody gets what we’re doing with the organ,” McKane says. “It becomes this luxury instrument, an accouterment, but Dave got that it was supposed to be this big sound, creating this space and atmosphere.”

The music is decidedly unfussy, and the songs unite melodic craft with raw emotion, from the roller-rink rage of “Nature’s Revenge” to the haunted devastation of “Something.”

“We’ve all played in a ton of bands,” Hansen says, “but we all agree that this is one of the records that we’ve made that we can listen to all the way through and feel pretty good about how it sounds.”

The sense of accomplishment arrives with a healthy dose of Chicago-bred skepticism. “Everyone I know who has been in bands, there’s a big joke about ‘making it,’ ” McKane says. All the band members have side jobs to make ends meet. “We’re all pretty high-strung, we want the music to be good, but there’s no weird ego stuff. When a certain perfectionism enters the process, it can kill the fun part. By not overthinking when we play, we’re able to just go with it. I feel great about this record.”